[SPOILERS] Northstar of the Svartalfar v Bob the Great of the Malakim

[Qgqqqqq]

No I don't! I'm Aggressive/Expansive.

You're playing v11.1? Scroll over her leader traits, she was changed to AGG/CRE.

[Northstar1989]

No I don't! I'm Aggressive/Expansive.

You're playing v11.1? Scroll over her leader traits, she was changed to AGG/CRE.

Arghh! That's NOT what it said in the overall change-log entry for her (although I will admit, it's not up-to-date for everything). Thais is NOT what I thought I was getting into. Oh, and by the way, nice way to nerf the elves AGAIN- you give them a great leader for a terrible civ, and then just go and nerf that leader until the elves are worthless in multiplayer again...

Not that it matters- with luck like that with the Tiger, barring some streak of luck (like catching a Settler off-guard with a Scout later on), I'm most likely going to lose this match anyways! All hail the great and deadly Random Number Generator!


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

OK, well, another turn:



And wait, what's that with the score?



Bob has grown to size 2 already!



His food harvests are 9 already, but his hammers are only 3, which can ONLY mean he settled near the Rice (for 5 food/turn plus 2 from the capital and 2 from a Grassland tile). If he had settled near the Wheat, he would be producing 4 hammers by this point (2 from the capital, 1 from the Wheat tile, and 1 from a forest) as well as the food.

That's a fairly poor starting-location, and he's going to be quite starved for food in the long run (without many wet Grasslands not covered by Jungle nearby). I'd also have a SIGNIFICANT hammer-lead over him by this point if I hadn't lost all those hammers to Scouts that got eaten by that darn Tiger!


Anyways, my next priorities are another Scout (to protect my Worker, and soon a 2nd city) and then a Settler. I could have opted for a Warrior, but another Scout will be better for exploring the terrain until my Settler is ready...


Even so, my only real option at this point is to try and choke Bob. If I can take out his Worker (50 hammers) then that should make up for the loss of my 2 Scouts (16 hammers each). Even if I can only delay Improvements by lurking dangerously near the edges of his borders, and eventually Subdue a few animals (which he will have no way of telling apart from their wild counterparts ), that should be well worth the effort...


Regards,
Northstar

P.S. Early wild animals are perhaps the *ONLY* case where Hidden Nationality is actually useful, and the last turn an advantage. I would have been MUCH better off in capturing a few if that darn Tiger hadn't eaten BOTH my early Scouts...

[Qgqqqqq]

Animals target HN units as well.

Arghh! That's NOT what it said in the overall change-log entry for her (although I will admit, it's not up-to-date for everything). Thais is NOT what I thought I was getting into. Oh, and by the way, nice way to nerf the elves AGAIN- you give them a great leader for a terrible civ, and then just go and nerf that leader until the elves are worthless in multiplayer again... rant

Svartalfar are an amazing civ. Volanna wasn't just a strong leader, she was actively overpowered to the point that she was being banned in every EitB game. Honestly, she's still the most powerful of the Svart leaders.

And yes, as usual, this was in the changelog. Stop making these authoritative statements:

Trait Change: Volanna: AGG/EXP -> AGG/CRE
Trait Change: Averax the Cambion: AGG/CRE/BAR -> AGG/EXP/BAR

[Northstar1989]

No, Q, that was in the 11.1 changelog. I'm talking about the COMPLETE changelog- the one that you download as a PDF. It wasn't in there. you've said yourself that one isn't always up-to-date, so it was my own fault...


Anyways, another turn, and I'm just soaking in hos SLOW elves are at improving naything:



And there's THAT TIGER again! I really hope it eats the Malakim Scout as well at some point...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Animals target HN units as well.

Also, I know that. I meant HN would be useful against Bob- he doesn't know if a Tiger with +80% STR that shows up on his border is Barbarian or HN... Thus if that Tiger would just go and play around near his borders, it might lead to him pulling back units from the field for fear of losing them (and if he decides it's just a wild animal, he won't fear that same Tiger later if I capture it).

And if he DOES ignore HN animals on his borders, I might have an easy time picking off a Worker...


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

True.


And that was in the EitB cumulative Changelog, which comes in the download. There wasn't another one I expected you to look in, or one with EitB v11 stuff in it.

[Northstar1989]

Another turn:



Tiger, tiger, where art thou now?

Chowing down on some Malikies, my mind hopes to avow!

(OK, so I'm playing as Perpentach of the Balseraphs in another one of my games, and some of my poetry might have spilled over. )


Also, as you can see, I moved my Worker to building a Pasture as soon as I discovered Animal Handling- quite a feat to cancel the job before he worked another turn of the Farm beneath the forest to the north of the capital I must say! (tell me- does the one turn of work I completed on the Farm get saved after I discontinued it like this?)


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

Yes.

(A big part of micro strategy lies in dumping turns into improvements when moving across 2-tile periods.)

[Northstar1989]

Yes.

(A big part of micro strategy lies in dumping turns into improvements when moving across 2-tile periods.)

Oh. Darn. I didn't know you could do that (knowing so would have helped SEVERAL of my games so far, and also explains certain patterns in my rivals' growth I couldn't make sense of before...)

Thanks for the info! Maybe you're not so bad after all, Q!


Regards,
Northstar